


Excursion

by Avengedeathnote



Category: Disney - All Media Types, Kingdom Hearts
Genre: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, F/M, Gen, Hurt/Comfort, Not Canon Compliant - Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Spoilers - Kingdom Hearts Birth By Sleep, Spoilers - Kingdom Hearts Dream Drop Distance, Time Travel, more tags as it goes on
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2018-02-05
Updated: 2018-02-05
Packaged: 2019-03-13 23:37:33
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 4,153
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/13581342
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Avengedeathnote/pseuds/Avengedeathnote
Summary: Don't mess with time travelers, unless you want to go back 10 years in the past. How is he gonna save Sora now? [REVISED STORY OF OLD FIC "I'LL COME BACK TO YOU"]





	Excursion

**Author's Note:**

> Title is a jab at all you KH fans I see on this site >:00 (i jkay I love all of you you guys make amazing stories)

Focus, pay attention to your surroundings.

His bones and muscles felt weary over the length of the battle as he quickly dashed forward to avoid the upcoming strike, leaving a trail of darkness. His opponent, Young Xehanort, quickly vanished for a brief moment before attempting to attack from behind. Riku, whose senses were incredibly strong, quickly spun around and activated his Dark barrier. The nobody’s keyblade bounced back as it hit the barrier, stunning the man for a second. Riku took this moment to cast Dark Splicer, feeling his feet leave the ground before disappearing. 

He appeared only a second later as he struck the man with all his might before disappearing once more, repeating his actions blow after blow. It was almost as if both men knew that the next strike was going to hit home, but as Riku’s keyblade was about to make the finishing move Young Xehanort had quickly cried out, “Time stop!”

The teen felt his movements slow and watched the villain quickly teleport to the center of the landscape, his movements returning back to normal once he did. Young Xehanort casted an almost transparent, blue clock next to him and Riku took a deep breath. He’ll make sure that he manages to break it on time, the strain in his muscles reminding him of what happened when he was too slow.

Quickly, he rushes forward, casting a reality shift the moment he got within range. An image of chains filled his mental image and he quickly struck forth. Everytime he had done this, a copy of Sora would appear right next to him helping him out, as if he was lending his strength. The chains easily broke and the arena was filled with light before resuming its atmosphere, save the purplish-blue floor spiraling beneath him. The young version of Xehanort was on his knees in front of the clock, his face contorted in pain. 

Riku took this chance to dash forward, casting dark fiagra to have a head start. Young Xehanort had quickly sprung to his feet and avoided the oncoming fireball, but fortunately meaning letting it hit its target. The man growled in frustration before releasing two fiery tornados towards him. Riku lept to the side, now close to his target. He put everything he got onto the clock, dealing severe blows on each side of it. The presence of Young Xehanort behind him was made known to the teen, and he braced himself for the upcoming strike from the nobody’s keyblade.

Only instead did a shrill cry from his dream eater tell him that they were fending off the nobody in hopes for their master to gain more time. Young Xehanort quickly deflected the dream eater’s attacks with ease, but was too late to even try to charge towards the teen. Out of panic the young villain launched an unfamiliar blue orb towards the hero. Riku had launched upwards at that moment however, and the orb struck the almost broken clock. But instead of accidentally destroying it, the orb was absorbed into it, omitting a low hum that intensified each second. Riku, who had put too much momentum and strength into the attack he used from his advantage of height to stop, striked the glowing timer with impeccable power. 

The clock broke under the constant beating, and a bright blue glow started to overcome the entire arena. Riku released his hold on Way to Dawn and held an arm up to shield his eyes from the overwhelming light, gritting his teeth. The young Xehanort had taken a step back, his eyes wide in surprise before his face contorted into anger. Xehanort teleported in front of the silver-haired teen, grabbing the front of his shirt and bringing his face close to his.

“Do you even realize what you have done?!” Young Xehanort yelled out, fury laced into his tone. Riku just glared at the man in front of him, despite the light silhouetting him that was glaring right back. “I’ve ended this battle, that’s what I did” Riku spat out before wrenching the man’s hands away from him. He jumped back a bit before swinging his keyblade to the side, “Zantetsuken!” Riku yelled out before swinging Way to Dawn towards Young Xehanort, who was not expecting the sudden attack. The powerful slash struck the nobody, causing him to fly back towards the humming timer. Surprisingly, Young Xehanort had went through the clock, as if it was some type of portal. The light intensified greatly, causing Riku to drop his keyblade in shock and braced himself for whatever was coming next.

His skin felt like it was burning and Riku bit his lip to stop himself from crying out, the taste of iron starting to fill his tongue. His vision hurt, and he closed his eyes, feeling his conscious start to leave him. He thought back to Sora, who was still in the Organization’s grasp. Mickey, who would be dealing with the rest of the Xehanort’s all by himself.

Before he could apologize mentally to everyone, he was gone.

 

He was here.

Well, wherever here was.

Riku opened his eyes, blinking slowly as his vision started to come back to him. He was sitting down on a stone bench, his feet resting on green grass and his head drooping down. He lifted his head and was baffled to see the landscape before him.

It was a beautiful scenery, Riku thought as he drinked in every detail. Tall mountains and hills filled the area, with an ocean resting beneath the land. The night starry sky gave the view a more elegant look to it, the occasional meteor flying through the field of stars. On top of that, a white castled seemingly to be chained to the mountains sat far away, closer to his left (It was weird, Riku thought. The castle seemed vaguely familiar to him, the mysterious building unknowingly sending shivers down his spine). 

Riku stood up before stretching, his backbones popping as he sighed in relief. He wasn’t dead, that was a start. But for one thing, where was he? Everything seemed new to him, yet for some reason he felt he has been here before. Suddenly, he remembered how he got here and quickly looked around, his eyes scanning for the young version of the villain everyone despises. The nobody was not in sight, perhaps he was gone forever? Riku quickly shook his head at the thought. This is Xehanort we’re talking about, he wouldn’t think that the nobody would be that easy to get rid of. Also, if he killed Young Xehanort, would that had affected everything he knew? By defeating a younger Xehanort the old Xehanort would never exist thus meaning that every single journey he’s been through would be erased and everyone would-

Riku had stopped his incredibly confusing thought process when he heard footsteps running behind him. Automatically, he ducked to the ground, just in front of the bench. The footsteps started to slow and he slowly inched himself to the back of the bench as the unknown person started walking to the front. 

“Wow…” an awestruck voice said. Riku almost fell on his face when he heard the voice. Luckily, he caught himself just in time before looking up, peeking through the U shaped gap in the stone bench. This time, Riku couldn’t stop himself from calling out, “Roxas?!”

Immediately the Roxas lookalike turned around, and Riku could see the slight difference. The boy looked exactly like Sora’s nobody, despite the different clothing. The band on the boy’s left arm was slightly different, the colors being inverted. A shoulder plate also rested on the same arm. However, what made him recognize that this was not the edgy nobody was the soft look in the guy’s eyes. Roxas never had this look, often glaring at Riku and snarling at him. This boy was nothing like him. If anything, he kinda reminded him of Sora.

“Wh-Who are you?” The boy stuttered, shocked to see that he wasn’t the only one here. The silver haired teen stood up, having no reason to hide anymore. “Riku” he answered, not wanting to frighten him. He looks to be his age, but if he were anything like Sora (Why would he compare them?), he’s probably easy to startle. The boy quickly diminished his shock and took a step forward, “Well Riku, I’m Ventus.” Ventus replied, his tone suddenly a lot more carefree “What’re you doing here? I thought it was just me and a few others living on this world, where’d you come from?” 

“If I had to be honest? I don’t really exactly know how I got here… or why” Riku answered truthfully. He made his way around the bench so he could face Ventus properly. Ventus looked at him with another look of shock. “Really? Me too! Well… when I first came here” He said, smiling shyly. Riku couldn’t help but smile back, “Well Ventus, do you know where we are right now?” he asked, still wanting to get to the bottom of things. “Land of Departure” the boy quipped before turning around to watch the sky once more. “This meteor shower is amazing!” Ventus said, watching a meteor streak the sky. Riku nodded his head at the remark and sat down on the grass, despite the bench that was a few feet behind him. “It sure it” Riku agreed “From my home, I don’t think we have these very often.”

Ventus moved to sit next to Riku then promptly laid down, his hands resting underneath his head. ‘Reminds me of that lazy bum Sora’ Riku couldn’t help but think as he grinned. That grin disappeared as he was reminded of the situation at hand. He wasn’t in The World That Never Was, Sora still needed his help to wake up. Riku looked down at this hands, taking note how he was still wearing the clothes he had when he first started this exam. ‘So that means I’m still in the dream world, Sora’s dream’ Riku thought. All he needed to do was to travel to The World That Never Was, hopefully he wouldn’t be too late. However, he wouldn’t know what route to take, as he doesn’t recognize this world on the map. Riku was about to ask Ventus for a way out until he spoke first.

“What do you think it’s like out there?” Ventus randomly asked, his eyes fixated on the sky above. Riku, as much as he needed to hurry and leave, answered the teen’s question, “All different kinds of worlds out there.” Ventus immediately looked towards Riku, “You’ve explored out there?” He exclaimed quizzically. Riku chuckled at his excitement before nodding, “Yup, I haven’t been everywhere yet but there are many worlds– each being unique from one another.”

Ventus wowed in amazement before sitting up, crossing his legs and resting his hands on his knees. “I wish I could explore what’s out there” he said sadly “My master doesn’t think I’m ready to travel around yet.” Riku couldn’t help but sympathise with him. He remembered wanting to leave his own island himself, to see all the different worlds out there. If he knew what kind of trouble he would be going through though he would had have second thoughts. “It ain’t easy out there” Riku admitted “each world has light in them, but darkness also lurks out there.” Ventus cocked his head, “What do you mean?” he asked. Riku sighed before turning his body towards him, “Ventus, as much as it was nice getting to know you, I need to leave” Riku said bluntly, his eyes betraying the slight fear he felt for his best friend. 

Ventus stared for a moment before nodding in understanding. “Is there something important you need to do?” He curiously asked, standing up while offering Riku a hand. Riku took the offered hand, standing up with him. “Yes, my best friend is in trouble right now, and if I don’t get to him soon I may lose him for good” Riku answered. Ventus’s eyes widen for a moment before settling into a more determined look. “Whatever it takes, I want to help” The blonde said. Riku smiled at his kindness. Ventus barely knew him but yet he was willing to help Riku out. “Thank you, Ventus” Riku said. “Call me Ven” Ven corrected before his face contorted into a more serious look, “Where is he right now?”

“The World That Never Was” Riku stated, following Ven as they both started walking towards a certain direction. Ven shook his head, “I’m not particularly familiar with any other world besides this one, but if we head towards my home, my master could probably help you!” he exclaimed, “Our destination is a bit of a walk, but it’s that castle you saw over the ridge.”

Riku sighed. After being knocked around by Young Xehanort for two battle rounds and suddenly being warped into another world with the threat of Sora’s life being destroyed, he honestly just wanted to lie down and sleep for the rest of his life. But he pressed forward, determined to save his best friend. 

The two teens made small talk for a while, asking about each other’s homes and also the mission on hand. Just as Riku was about to tell Ven about what he remembers before arriving here, heartless’ had suddenly sprang up from the ground, surrounding the two teens.

Both gasped. “What are these?!” Ven yelled out, side stepping out of the way as one made a dash towards him. Riku called out Way to Dawn and assumed his battle stance. “Heartless! Ven, run somewhere…” Riku trailed off as Ven had too pulled out a keyblade of his own. Riku couldn’t help it as his jaw dropped, same thing for the other teen. “You can wield a keyblade?!” they both yelled, only to jump to the side as two heartless made a mad run towards the two, it’s claws just barely missing them. “Now’s not the time to be awestruck” Riku started, slashing at one close to his left, “Ven! Get ready to fight!”

Ventus nodded before using his backhand keyblade to successfully aim for the heartless in his back, the dark entity dissipating at the oncoming strike. He let out a cry before leaping into the air and slamming into at least two heartless’, destroying them. From his peripheral vision, he saw three of those monsters creeping up to him, and he quickly dodged just in time to avoid the slash that was meant for him. His keyblade, Wayward Wind, hummed in his hand before he charged forward, hitting the three heartless straight on. They disappeared as Ven grinned at his success. ‘Wait till Aqua and Terra see me now’ Ven mused before continuing to launch attacks towards the small enemies.

Riku struck continuously, his keyblade successfully cutting through the beings with no heart with ease. Quickly, he let out one of his powerful moves Dark Aura, dashing towards the surrounding enemies hitting each one with a powerful strike. He shot upwards and let out a yell as he drove Way to Dawn into the ground, causing a shockwave to form and destroying any heartless that were in range. He smirked before turning around and slicing through a heartless that attempted to jump him, the being crippling into residues of darkness from the hit. ‘Too easy’ he thought, before continuing his attacks.

The two teens continued their attacks before the last one was killed, Ventus performing blitz on the last. It was silent, save for the boy’s tired pants. “We… we did it!” Ventus exclaimed, “Man I was training for a moment like this to happen! Wait till Terra and Aqua hear about this.” Riku rolled his eyes playfully over the other teen’s childishness. “I’m assuming that not a lot of danger happens around here?” Riku said teasingly. Ven snorted at the comment, “After being constantly watched over and protected by everyone, the safety life gets a bit boring” he joked, dismissing his keyblade. He then pointed towards Riku’s blade, “But wow! I didn’t know that there were other keyblade wielders out there! How’d you get yours?” Ven asked, staring at Riku’s Way to Dawn with awe. 

“Honestly? I’m not sure. It just… came” Riku answered before gesturing towards Ven, “What about you? You pulled some nice moves out there, how’d you learn how to wield one?” Ventus smiled widely, “My friends and my master taught me, it’s my dream to one day become a keyblade master.” Ven said proudly, his eyes shining in delight. That smile was infectious, and Riku couldn’t help but smile back. “I believe you’ll achieve that. Me and my friend were actually taking our Mark of Mastery right now, until the whole danger-thing interfered, now I gotta go and save his sorry butt” Riku said sounding exasperated, but the smile on his face was still present. Ventus laughed, “Haha, well I hope you and him pass with flying colors!” he reassured. Riku laughed too, thinking about how he was way too similar to Sora.

Suddenly footsteps were heard and two people– one young man with spiky hair and a young woman with blue hair –ran towards the two teens. Both boys diminished their keyblades out of habit. “Ven! There you are, me and Terra couldn’t find you so we went looking for you” the woman said, putting a hand on his shoulder with a relieved smile. “Hehe, sorry guys, I got a bit distracted” Ven said bashfully, putting his hands behind his neck and smiled. Aqua just shook her head smiling before looking next to the blond, taking notice of him for the first time. “Who are you?” Aqua had asked, a warm tone with a slight hint of suspicion laced in. “Riku” he introduced, nodding his head a bit “Nice to meet you.” Aqua took a moment to look him over– probably analyzing him –before nodding back, a smile gracing her features, “Hello Riku, I’m-”

“These are my friends! She’s Aqua and that’s Terra!” Ventus interrupted, pointing at the two. Terra waved at the silver teen as Aqua rolled her eyes playfully at the younger boy. Terra took a step forward, “So Riku what are you doing here? Never had a lot of visitors around these grounds” he asked. Riku blinked at the taller man. For some reason, he sounded very familiar. Not only that but his appearance also seemed to turn on something in the back of his head, and if he just thought about it a bit more then maybe-

Riku quickly jumped back and brandished his keyblade, pointing it slightly above himself. “Fire!” he yelled out and a small ball of fire shot forward. Immediately, Terra sidestepped out of the way, surprise in his features as he watched the blast hit something black in mid air. The entity disappeared at the touch– a heartless. Everyone looked where it use to be before turning back towards the newcomer. “Maybe a warning next time?” Terra said, glaring slightly at the teen. Said teen only shrugged, “a second later you probably would have lost your heart however.”

Aqua stepped forward, her face betraying awe as she stared at Riku. “You can wield a keyblade?!” She proclaimed, staring at Way to Dawn. Even Terra was shocked, after getting over the chance of being burnt. Aqua opened her mouth again, “This is-”

But before she could finish her sentence, a horde of heartless suddenly popped out of nowhere– Large Body’s, Blue Rhapsody’s, Green Requiem’s, and Gigas Shadow’s springing from the ground or air. Everyone took a step back at the intrusion. “Seriously? I’m cut off again?” Aqua couldn’t help but say as she summoned her own keyblade Rainfell. Terra and Ventus followed suit, their eyes narrowing at the dark shadows. “What are these?” Terra yelled out, slashing one of the shadows mid air as it tried to make a jump for him. Ventus dodged an upcoming dash made towards him from a Large Body, “These are Heartless! I thought we got rid of them all?” Ven grunted, performing a Meteor Shower shotlock at the heartless, which did no effect as it bounced off the front of the shadow. 

From the corner of Riku’s eye, he saw more and more pop up. His magic was dangerously low right now, his arms starting to strain a bit after not resting for a proper amount of time. “There’s too many!” Riku exclaimed, rolling to his left as he dodged a blizzard aimed for him, “We need to back off for now!” 

The three seemed to agree with him, as Aqua ran first towards a certain direction. “This way!” she called out “I know where to go!”

The three boys followed suit, following the blue haired women while also being careful of the elemental projectiles that were being aimed at them. Terra quickly performed strike raid behind Riku, as it had almost managed to strike him had it not been for the intervention. Riku gave a silent thanks before focusing on his surroundings. The four made long jumps across floating rocks before they found themselves running up the spiral pathway, leading to the castle Riku has seen from before. At the top, an old man in long white garments stood waiting.

“What is the meaning of this?!” the man yelled, quickly brandishing out his keyblade– Seriously? The surprise of more new keyblade wielders was starting to get old to Riku –to help defend everyone. He raised his keyblade into the air, “Light!” he called out. A bright light shot out of the tip of the blade, shooting up into the sky as the sight of it seemed to be blinding. The heartless’ that have followed the four wielders all but faded away, it’s screech loud and clear over the pain of the light burning at the dark shadows. Everyone stopped as the light attack faded away, leaving no trace of the heartless ever being present. 

The old man inhaled heavily for a moment before turning around to face the four younger people. 

“I want an explanation, if you don’t so mind” the man said, his eyes gazing at each one before stopping at Riku’s, “Oh? And who might you be?”. “Riku, I was just passing” he said, feeling slightly on edge under the old man’s stare. The man seemed to watch him for a second, “I’ll ask later” he said shortly before turning to the three next to him, “As for you three, I will be asking now.”

The trio sighed before Aqua and Terra stepped up. “As we finally found Ventus along with Riku, a group of monsters that are named heartless seem to make a jump at us” Aqua explained. Terra opened his mouth, “Luckily we were able to escape here before any real harm was done.” The man pondered at this before turning once again towards Riku, “I don’t suppose you, young man, were behind this?” he said, suspicion leaking in his tone.

Riku immediately put up his hands, shaking his head, “Of course not, sir.” he defended, “I actually have been fighting against these heartless’ for quite a while now.” The man stared for a while before accepting his answer and turning back to the three friends, “Well, it looks like that there is a threat to look out for” he concluded, “For now however, today has been quite a long day for all of you. Aqua, Terra, go ahead to your rooms to rest for the exam tomorrow. As for Ventus, please escort our new guest to one of the spare rooms.”

“Yes, Master Eraqus” all three said in unison before turning to leave to the castle before him. Ventus turned around, grinning, “C’mon Riku, make yourself at home” he said before turning around again to lead to the doors. Before following the blond teen, Riku turned towards the master before him, bowing slightly, “Thank you for your hospitality, Master Eraqus.” Eraqus only smiled at the politeness of the silver haired teen, “ Not to worry, young Riku. I hope we find time to discuss what brings you here some time soon.” the master replied before turning away towards the castle, Riku following suit.

He was still confused, Riku thought. Why hasn’t he heard of this world before? What exactly did happen towards the end of his fight with young Xehanort? What’s gonna happen to Sora? So many questions filled his mind and Riku winced at the headache that was starting to form. His questions could wait once he discusses with the master of this place, he thought. Ventus had already led him to his room, where he was currently sitting at the edge of the bed alone, thinking. He groaned out loud before slumping backwards, his back hitting the soft surface and closed his eyes.

Because his top priority right now after today, is to sleep.


End file.
